How to Refine Palm Oil?
Description: This article offers a professional analysis of the entire palm oil refining process, including the differences between physical and chemical refining processes, core steps, and key equipment, helping you choose an efficient and economical palm oil refining solution.
Crude palm oil contains impurities such as free fatty acids, gums, pigments, and odor substances. It must be refined to obtain safe, stable, and standard-compliant edible oil. So, how is palm oil refined? What are the core palm oil refining processes? What key equipment is needed? As a leading grain and oil machinery manufacturer and overall solution provider in China, Henan Huatai Cereals and Oils Machinery Co., Ltd., with 37+ years of technical accumulation and project experience, will provide you with authoritative answers and mature palm oil equipment.
Core Objectives and Process Selection for Palm Oil Refining
The main objective of palm oil refining is to remove impurities while maximizing the retention of natural nutrients in the oil and avoiding the formation of new harmful substances. Based on the quality of the crude oil and the grade requirements of the finished oil, there are two main processes:
- Physical Refining: This method is particularly suitable for crude palm oil with high acid value (high FFA content). Its core principle is to simultaneously deacidify and deodorize through distillation. This process boasts significant advantages such as low chemical consumption, high oil yield, and no wastewater pollution, making it the mainstream choice for modern palm oil refining plant.
- Chemical Refining: This method neutralizes free fatty acids in crude oil through alkali refining. The process is mature, but it suffers from high chemical consumption for high-acid-value crude oil, generating soapstock and wastewater.
Henan Huatai’s engineering team will scientifically recommend and design the most economical and efficient physical or chemical refining scheme based on the crude oil specifications and finished oil requirements you provide.
Detailed Steps of Palm Oil Refining and Huatai’s Core Equipment
A complete palm oil refining production line, regardless of the process used, typically includes the following core stages, each requiring high-performance equipment.
1) Degumming Stage
Purpose: To remove phospholipids, mucus, proteins, and other pectin-soluble impurities from the crude oil.
Huatai Oil Equipment: Huatai’s high-efficiency degumming system uses phosphoric acid or citric acid, coupled with precise stirring and reaction conditions, to cause the gum to coagulate and precipitate, which is then effectively separated by a centrifuge, laying the foundation for subsequent processes.
2) Deacidification Section (Core Process)
Physical Deacidification: Under high temperature and high vacuum conditions, steam is used to distill and remove free fatty acids and odor substances from the oil. Henan Huatai’s deacidification and deodorization tower is its core equipment, employing a unique structural design to ensure full contact between stripping steam and the oil, achieving efficient mass transfer while also offering excellent energy-saving and consumption-reducing performance.
Chemical Deacidification (Alkali Refining): Alkali solution is added to react with free fatty acids to generate soapstock, which is then efficiently separated from the neutral oil using a Huatai high-speed centrifuge.
3) Decolorization Section
Purpose: To adsorb and remove pigments (such as carotenoids and chlorophyll) from the oil, improving its color.
Huatai Oil Equipment: Huatai’s fully automatic decolorization tower and leaf filter system can precisely control the decolorization temperature, time, and vacuum level. It utilizes activated clay to efficiently adsorb pigments, and then uses precision filtration to completely separate the waste clay from the oil, resulting in a clear and bright oil.
4) Deodorization Section
Purpose: In physical refining, this section is combined with deacidification. In palm oil chemical refining process, it mainly removes residual odor components, peroxides, and trace amounts of soap particles from the oil.
Huatai Oil Equipment: Also using a deacidification and deodorization tower, direct steam is introduced under high temperature and high vacuum to thoroughly strip away various volatile undesirable substances, ensuring the finished oil has a pure flavor and high stability.
5) Fractionation Section (Suitable for producing palm oil)
Purpose: By controlling the crystallization and crystal growth temperatures, high-melting-point triglycerides (stearin) and waxes in palm oil crystallize out, and then are separated by Huatai’s high-efficiency winterization filter, thus obtaining palm oil that remains clear and transparent even at low temperatures.
Choose Henan Huatai, Choose Excellence and Guarantee
When exploring palm oil refining, choosing a reliable palm oil equipment partner is crucial. Henan Huatai Cereals and Oils Machinery Co., Ltd. is your best choice:
Leading Technology: The company boasts a strong R&D team and numerous patented technologies. Its palm oil refining production lines are industry-leading in heat exchange efficiency, vacuum maintenance, and automation control.
Extensive Experience: Huatai’s Oil equipment has been successfully exported to many major palm oil producing countries worldwide, accumulating rich project experience and enabling it to handle various complex production needs.
One-Stop Service: From project consultation, process design, equipment manufacturing, installation and commissioning to technical training and after-sales support, we provide full-process services to ensure your palm oil project goes into production smoothly and generates continuous benefits.
High Efficiency and Energy Saving: Huatai palm oil equipment places special emphasis on heat recovery and electricity saving. Through optimized process design, it significantly reduces your long-term operating costs.
Conclusion
Refining palm oil is a systems engineering project involving sophisticated chemical unit operations. From degumming and deacidification to decolorization and deodorization, each step directly impacts the quality and yield of the final product. Henan Huatai Cereals and Oils Machinery Co., Ltd., with its sophisticated technology, stable and reliable complete sets of equipment, and comprehensive project services, provides customers with complete palm oil refining machine solutions from crude oil to finished palm oil products that meet international standards.
If you are planning to build or upgrade your palm oil refinery, please contact Henan Huatai immediately. Let us use our professional technology and equipment to safeguard your oil business and create a brilliant future together!
Website: https://palmoilmachine.com/
Email: info06@cnoilmachine.com
